Innovation in Language Learning

How language, be it first (L1) or second (L2), is acquired has been the concern of much research and investigation, and perhaps no other phenomenon has witnessed such interest (Shormani, 2014b). One such area within language acquisition is collocability and how it presents a difficult aspect to L2 acquirers. This is so due to the fact that collocability involves formulaic language the mastering of which has been considered specific to native speakers of the language being learned. Thus, in this article, I propose a minimalist approach based on integrating syntax and semantics. The former concerns combining (collocating) two lexical items by means of Select and Merge operations, and the latter concerns what goes with what in a collocation based on feature specifications encoded on each lexis (i.e. word). My proposal stems from substantial evidence proving the availability of syntax and semantics in collocability. Thus, each collocation produced by Select and Merge has to “pass” the semantic constraints manifested in the Collocating Feature Specification Rule (=CFSR). However, if this produced collocation fails to “pass” CFSR, it has to undergo acquisition once more in which parameters are reset and retriggered through acquisition reorientation. The proposal places much emphasis on mental properties of Universal Grammar (UG), and the same is true concerning L2 acquisition settings in relation to providing L2 acquirers with an “equal” linguistic input native speakers have had.

Keywords: Syntax ,Semantics, Collocation Acquisition, ELT;